Happy Hike Naked Day!

Hi! We're up in Cascade Locks, Oregon. Just a few miles from the border to Washington, the month of August and Cascade mountains await. Just wanted to tell of a special day on the calendar of the one foot wide, 2700 mile long community known as the Pacific Crest Trail...

June 21st marked the summer solstice, known as "hike naked day" on the Pacific Crest Trail. The day was celebrated in the most literal of fashions- by hiking naked. We crossed paths with one thru-hiker who observed Hike Naked Day by climbing up Mount Whitney, the highest peak in the lower 48- a site filled with over a hundred people per day, including some who are innocently unaware of the uniqueness of June 21st.



In honor of Hike Naked Day, we wish to explore the depth and hopefulness that exists within it.


A solstice occurs when night and day last exactly the same amount of time- when sun and moon are granted equal exposure. Many nature-worshiping traditions, including the Celtic/druidic and Wickan ones, numerous Native American ones, and other such cultures made/make great celebrations and dance festivals in honor of the yearly solstices.

According to our tradition, the moon was originally created as one of the two "Me'orot Hagdolot"- the great lights. As a punishment, though, God minimized the moon's size, promising to return her to her original grandeur when this world would reincarnate itself into the next. The moon's equaling the sun as a great light, therefore, is one of the elements of our Acharit Hayamim- the "After days" (Acharit does not mean "end of" as it is often translated. It is more like "afterwords"- as in representing a time after - or beyond- time).

Our redemption includes a return to the state of Adam and Even in the Garden, and continues with our rise- or better said, adjoining of the Oneness, from there. As we all know, Adam and Eve were naked before they sinned. They had yet to be pulled down by physicality, could rather transcend it- and therefore did not need clothing. Their embarrassement at being naked was a reflection of a lowered state.

So back to a solstice. What is the celebration of solstice? When moon gains equal footing as the sun. What are we talking about? Redemption! And why then, would thru-hikers walk naked? Because they are celebrating a return to Eden! They mark the special day by displaying that they are beyond embarrassment at their own physicality. (One might argue, that even when thru-hikers are naked, their bodies are so dirty that they are not, technically, naked, but that's a whole 'nother subject...)

So...


For those that are curious...

We did not hike up Mount Whitney on June 21st.


Nor did we hike naked on Hike Naked Day.


Those with extra relgious fervor might want to ask- why did we not hike naked on Hike Naked Day? After all, its seriousness is the most possible of seriousnesses, its holiness of the holiest degree.

Our answer to such questions is this: As Jews, we are committed to both cyclical and linear understandings of time. While we recognize a constant Divinity within the forces of Nature, identifying God's perfection as being woven within the current state of the world- we also believe in an ultimate redemption, a linear process from imperfect to perfect, incompleteness to completeness, a return from exile to the Land of Israel.

While we have seen clear signs of redemption in the context of our return to our land, we're not there yet (For further research on us "not being there yet," read the news...). So just like the Ma'apilim who were not allowed to rise to Israel after the sin of the spies, just like we are forbidden to enter certain parts of the Temple Mount- we are forbidden from hiking naked on Hike Naked Day.

But how cool is the world! Even if we can't hike naked, we can appreciate others' recognition of something obviously holy- and Hike Naked Day is definetly that. People are so exciting! The universe is so exciting!

So we end with a prayer: We bless you and us, that we may reach the state of meriting to transcend our physicality. No doubt that when we rebuild and return to the Garden, with the help of Hashem, it will be designated wilderness by the Geulah's national park service. And it will no doubt have a special long walking trail through it, in which we can explore God's revealed perfection. On this trail, there will be trail angels, just like there are on the long trails on the current earth. Only these trail angels- they'll be real angels- congratulating humankind on thru-hiking history; overcoming the painful challenges, the tears, the failures, the constant blisters and aches and falls and the dreams to just be done with it all- achieving a full unity with the Master and Breath of the world, and coming out standing tall and proud. And when that happens, please, please let it be soon, may we all be blessed to unabashedly Hike Naked through the backcountry of Eden.